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Students, young professionals, and social media in the workplace [Infographic]

I work with college students everyday, and we often chat about making the transition from College to career. This includes conversations around finding their first professional job, expectations they have of the employer, and how to manage personal and professional lives. A lot of them talk about wanting to enjoy the work that they do, work for a company they believe in, have the freedom to work from home, and belong to a collaborative team environment where guidance is nearby, but not overbearing.

When we get to discussing the intersection of their social media accounts and their professional careers, they often see it as their “right” to use their own social media accounts at work. The attitude seems to be “if the job gets done, what’s the big deal if I spend 15 minutes on Facebook while having my 10:30 a.m. coffee?” And I would have to agree. If the job gets done, I have no problem with office Facebooking. It’s also quite interesting that when I ask these same students if they would be OK doing some work at home if they couldn’t get it done in the 9-5 office hours they are paid to be there, they say they would…without hesitation.

The infographic below from OnlineCollegeCourses.com shares some findings that seem to support the anecdotal evidence I’ve seen in the attitudes of college students as they transform into young professionals.

A few statistics jumped out at me:

Almost 30% of college students said they value social media freedom and device flexibility over salary

67% of young professionals believe their company’s IT policy needs updating

Nearly 70% of the same young professionals believe it is OK to use a company-issued device for both professional and personal matters